Linus Didn't See That Coming
by Redmage2
Summary: When Linus imagined the things that could go wrong a few days before Valentine's Day, this certainly didn't occur to him.


Summary: When Linus imagined the things that could go wrong a few days before Valentine's Day, this certainly didn't occur to him. 

A/N: This was inspired by a random little fanart-ish doodle that I did in a class. The link to the drawing is at the bottom.

Disclaimer: I own none of these characters. And they're probably horribly OUT of character, since I haven't really read any Peanuts for a couple of years...

* * *

It was a early in the morning of February 10th when Linus shuffled outside, rubbing his still-sleepy eyes. He peered into the lawn, trying to find the source of the thumping noise which awakened him. Seeing nothing, Linus yawned and turned back indoors. 

It was a dangerous time of year for him, after all. He glanced around nervously again when the thought that perhaps Sally had started her Valentine's Day nonsense early this year crossed his mind. Despite the close examination, his yard still appeared as normal as it could at 3 a.m. Shaking his head at his paranoia, Linus went back inside, and shut the door behind him, not noticing the black shadow which streaked into the house just before the door was closed and locked.

"Must be windy outside," Linus mumbled before he turned and made his way back to his bedroom to sleep for a few hours more before he would wake up to go to school.

The shadow, which had crouched in a corner and was mostly hidden by a beanbag chair, chuckled quietly after the boy had returned to bed.

...after school...

The shadow seemed to tense in its hiding place behind the beanbag chair as the door opened, heralding the return of Linus and his sister from school.

"I'm going to watch TV! There's going to be a program about winning your Valentine's Day sweetheart's love," the sister called, heading over to drag the beanbag in front of the television, causing the shadow to crouch down, apparently preparing to flee to a new hiding place.

Linus frowned at his sister. "It's my night to get the room! I need peace and quiet to read." The boy shook his head slightly. "The last thing I need is to listen to something about Valentine's Day!"

Lucy glared at her brother, but when she saw how desperate he looked, she settled for merely taking a menacing step forward, displaying her clenched fist prominately. Linus gulped. "Please?"

Without saying another word, Lucy smirked in victory and walked out of the room. The shadow relaxed, but readied itself to make its move.

Linus walked over to his coffee table and picked up the book he was reading. With a small smile, he sat directly on the floor, curling the blanket through his arm and sticking his thumb in his mouth.

The shadow pounced.

It leapt over the beanbag chair and raced across the room before the boy even had registered the movement.

Linus finally snapped out of his state of shock with the slamming of the front door to his house.

He gave a short cry and stood up, only then noticing...

The stranger had taken his blanket.

"Snoopy!" Linus exclaimed, and ran out the front door to Charlie Brown's house, prepared to look for his friend's dog the whole way.

Linus stopped as soon as he got onto the porch. In his front yard was the culprit.

It was not Snoopy.

Linus blinked, rubbed his eyes, and blinked again.

The strange sight had not gone away.

There was an adult man with three-quarters of his face covered standing on his grass. The man had silver hair and was wearing a green and blue outfit that almost looked like a uniform. The man was also holding Linus' blanket with a triumphant air.

When he noticed the very confused child watching him, Linus guessed that the man winked at him, although it was impossible to tell; he could have simply been blinking. "I have the blanket now, seriously!"

Linus had been fully prepared to wrestle a beagle to retain possession of his security blanket, but when faced with the prospect of a dispute with the insane man in the front yard, Linus suddenly remembered that there might be an extra blanket somewhere up in the attic...

The child quickly stepped inside. The door shut firmly, and the sound of deadbolts turning could be heard.

The ninja blinked at the door, then looked down at his prize and smiled. Probably. It was hard to tell.

* * *

O.o Scared by the workings of my mind yet?

Anyway, here's the pic, which IMO is pretty cute: http:www. deviantart. com/ view/ 16485227/ (

remove the spaces)


End file.
